Design Process

Tinkercad

For the Tinkercad design, first, we each brainstormed ideas for a carbon dioxide capture device and discussed crucial components that we needed to include in the design. After this step, we researched ways that carbon dioxide can be collected and separated from ambient air. We decided we wanted to make our design a cylinder shape with a fan and a type of filtration system to separate the carbon dioxide from the atmospheric air that entered the device. We then began working on the development of our device in Tinkercad, starting with a basic cylindrical body and the design of the fan. At first, we utilized fans at both the top and bottom of our device, but realized that the captured carbon could easily escape in this way. For this reason, we decided to only put a fan at the bottom, closing off the top, and to protect the device from ruining the fan if it were to land on it, we added a cone shaped protection at the bottom of the device. Next, we worked on the mesh gates that would act as our filtration system. After creating one mesh gate, we decided to add three more of these gates to maximize filtration. We figured that if any particles were able to pass through the first two gates, it would be very beneficial to be extra careful in having these particles pass through two more mesh gates. At first, we planned to just have the carbon dioxide stored in the empty space of the device's body once it passed through the mesh gates; however, as we thought about the utilization of the device, we found that problems may arise if the particles were to fill the empty space and then begin to leak back out through the mesh gates. Consequently, to prevent this, we decided to funnel the CO2 particles into an air-tight canister through a small pipe to ensure that scientists could remove the carbon dioxide from the device in the most accessible and secure way possible. After developing the device in its entirety, we decided to create a copy of the structure split in half to showcase the inner workings of the device. Lastly, we copied and separated each component for 3D printing.

Brainstorming Ideas

These were our first design ideas in creating the carbon dioxide capture device, which we combined and altered to create our final device design.

RockSim

For the RockSim rocket, first, we explored the RockSim application and decided to look at a few pre-made rockets to try to get a good idea of what we wanted to make and what the possibilities were on RockSim. After watching tutorials and experimenting, we created our first rocket. We step-by-step added each part of the structure to the rocket until it was a complete rocket. This rocket ended up being three stages, only using basic materials like paper and polycarbonate. It also utilized an elliptical shaped nose cone, elliptical fins on only the bottom two stages, and a larger nose cone in width than the rest of the body. This rocket did not reach the heights (only reaching an altitude of about 1,200 feet) that we wanted it to, as we initially had goals of our rocket going into orbit, so we sought to improve it. As we began to make improvements, we made the width of the largest part of the nose cone the width for the rest of the rocket to make our rocket uniform in width. Then, we improved the motors on our rocket, making them larger so that our rocket could accelerate more as it went into the air. However, we found that this improvement consisted of more than just changing the motors. We also had to increase the overall size of the rocket (while making sure that it did not get too long) and resize the centering rings and inner tube to allow room for these larger motors. After we had finalized the overall size of the rocket, we began to customize different structural aspects of the rocket. We made the nose cone larger and changed its shape to the Sears-Haack (Von Karmen)  nose cone shape. We added fins to the third stage of our rocket to have fins on all three stages. We also changed all of the elliptical fins to Snarky Main Wings from Dynastar and made them larger in size to stabilize our rocket. After all of these improvements, our rocket reached much greater heights (hitting altitudes of about 20,000 feet) performing better than before, but it was still not reaching the heights we wanted it to. We looked back to see what else we could improve on and saw that we could utilize stronger materials on our rocket. We decided to change the whole rocket to carbon fiber, except for the centering rings which we made carbon glass. After making sure we were using the strongest material, the best motors, and the best shape and size, we tested the rocket. This rocket reached a peak altitude of 88,170.4 feet, but it still was not able to reach orbit. For this reason, we added a parachute to allow a smooth descent of our rocket back to the ground once it reached its peak altitude.

Research Paper

For the research paper, we first did some general research on the design processes of rockets, carbon dioxide capture and storage, and the production of synthetic hydrocarbon fuels. After this research, we decided that our overall research question for this paper would be “What are the design processes of rockets, capturing/storing CO2, and the production of synthetic hydrocarbon tools?” Next, we created an outline of the sections that we would want to include in our research paper and divided the sections up among us to get the paper done efficiently and productively. After this, we all did our part in looking over the research paper to revise, edit, and ensure that it was at a level to be turned in.

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